High Brightness Pump Combiner Architecture

Recent advances in fiber lasers have shown their potential for power scaling to levels required by Directed Energy (DE) applications. Two promising scaling approaches are being pursued: spectral or coherent combination of multiple fiber lasers. To simplify DE systems, it is desirable to maximize the power available from a single fiber laser. However, fiber heating and nonlinear effects such as stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering limit the power available from a single fiber. In this program, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to fabricate and test a novel pump coupler that provides this needed advance. In phase I, PSI will conceptualize several pump-to-signal combiner designs, trade study the designs, down select a couple of designs to be prototyped in phase II, create a detailed plan of execution from concept to prototype, and develop a market study for commercial opportunities.